We want to try and highlight some of the stories of children and youth that are part of YES Uganda. This month’s profile story is about Rose Kyakyo.
Rose's cousin, Rose, her younger sister Flavin, and her 7 year old cousin (boy).
Rose is 15 years old and desperately wants to do something with her life. She has a 14 year old sister still in primary school while she is in secondary school in senior 2. She was five years old when she lost both her mother and father and was taken in by her late mother’s sister, her aunt.
Flavin, and their boy cousin (7 yr old boy) in background
Flavin, Rose and one of their cousin's they care for.
Rose’s aunt has been in the city desperately trying to raise some money for all the kids. She wants to return to the village as soon as possible, but the family is in a land dispute that she is fighting. So the aunt has left Rose and her sister to care for her own two children aged 4 and 7. They all live in a mud house deep in a rural village. The boy is 7 and the girl 4. The YES Uganda program has started paying the school fees needed for them all, and has helped Rose go to school. Her sister Flavin is studying in primary 6 and the seven year old boy is in primary 1. The four year old girl is left unattended during the day.
When Rose returns from school she has to search for firewood to cook food and walk some distance to carry water for washing and cooking. She and her sister have to prepare meals from the garden, which is sometimes very little. As well they have to wash clothes, dig in the garden and do all the other duties that would be done by a mother. In spite of that, Rose is doing well in school even though she is without reading lights to study at night and has so many household duties and work to be done. We would love to be able to send Rose to a good boarding school where she could have plenty of food to eat, a bed of her own to sleep in and lights for night studies, but the problem would be the care of the small kids left by the aunt. Rose hopes to be either a school teacher or a nurse in the future.
Rose
Rose's Aunt and a cousin
The 4 year old girl was not around when David took these photos and the other girl in the photo is a close cousin who is more like a sister. The older girls are very bright in school and if they could possibly go to a boarding school for senior 3 and 4 they could have a chance to do something with their lives. Staying alone in the bush and going to a local school leaves them very vulnerable.
It would be so good if we could help these girls who have wonderful attitudes and behave very well.
